THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1907. THE BOERS AS MINERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8538, 19 September 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1907. THE BOERS AS MINERS.

The recent strike of miners on the Rand has led to a large number of Boers being employed in the mines, and it is evident that the Transvaal Government are alive to the possibilities which this new occupation opens up for the Dutchman. According to trie Johannesburg 1 correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph the question is often put, Will the Dutchman stick to the work which a lucky chance has put in his way? The correspondent has no hesitation in saying that he will. The only wonder is that the Boer has not taken to underground work long ago, particularly since the wages offered are mush in ad\aice of what he has been accustomed to receive in other spheres of labour which he has made his own. In his new employment the Boer's quality of handiness is standing him in good stead. As a people they are essentially self-dependent, | and they are accustomed to find themsalves in situations in which they are compelled to rely on their own readiness and resource for extrication. Thus the average Boer thinks nothing of building his own house with bricks of his own manufacture. He makes excellent furniture of a rough sort. He is an expert quarryman, and thus accustomed to use dynamite efficiently and economically, an accomplishment which is Half the battle of cheap mining. He fences his farm, repairs his plough and cart, and when travelling to market, if a disselboom breaks, he just curses his oxen for their carelessness, then outspans, and, taking axe and adze, fells and shapes the nearest suitable tret to replace the broken pole, and quietly resumes his journey. Of I

course, as a "bosser-up" of natives the Dutchman is unequalled.- ■ He brings to it a zest and a senae of the divine right of a Dutchman to make the black man work which produces results. Boys work harder for him than will for the average English miner, who doesn't understand them, or know how to get the work out of them. A Kaffir simply knows he can't "humbug" a Boer, so he doesn't waste time in attempting it. When it comes to bossing-up a gang of natives drilling holes, or shovelling and tramming ore for the mill, the substitution of Boers for English miners is bound to have a marked effect on the quantity of work performed. The British miner having given his boys what he calls a "start," is too apt to sit down, light his pipe, and dream of pay-day. Not so the true Boer. He may not have a high opinion of work as a personal exercise for himself, but it i.« one of his unshaken beliefs that the Kaffir is a mere "creature," and labour his portion. An idle native is abhorrent to this untiring taskmaster, who is yet by no means unkind. In fact, as worker and supervisor, the combination of Kaffir and Boer can't be beaten, and their employers are feeling sorry they didn't realise it sooner.